Planning For Your Life

The children in our neighborhood will be heading back to school next week so I guess that signals the end of summer.

For me the signal for the end of summer is the waning produce from my garden. It has been a good summer and the garden produced some good crops of peas, beans, spinach, squash, peppers and tomatoes. I managed to freeze or can a lot of it and look forward to using it into the winter ahead.

Here is a picture of some of the squash.

Today I tilled the squash under and prepared the soil for a second crop of green beans. I hope to get one last good crop before it freezes so I can have some beans this winter.

I know that we will have many more days of warm weather ahead but it is always sad to see the end of the garden. It is a signal that things are changing, evolving and slowing down.

Life, however, never slows down. In fact, as we grow older it seems to move ever faster and we have to work at slowing it down. A garden, though, is a great way to slow time down because there is nothing you can do to make plants grow and produce any faster.

And when you are working in the garden you need to stop and take notice of every little aspect of it. What is new that you missed yesterday, what needs special attention, what needs to be harvested today? And if you have a particularly small crop (mine was a pepper called Tai Hot) that you need to get right down on to pick and that has hundreds of fruit, time can really slow down.

I’m lucky that my kids are grown and gone so that I can have the time to contemplate and work in my garden. If you have kids, especially young ones, your life is probably in a constant whirl of activity. I remember those days of after school activities and constant juggling of schedules to make it to the events.

But even if your life looks like this it might be a good idea to find something in your life to slow you down. To slow you down long enough to appreciate LIFE. Maybe it is yoga, or meditation, or a walk around the block or your garden.

With school back in session it might seem like things just got more hectic, that time just sped up a little more, but if you take some time to just consciously slow it down you might find that small piece of time where you can take notice of that most important thing just in front of you right now. A moment just to be present to life, your life and a chance to say “thank you”.

Here’s hoping that as your summer comes to a close you find a moment just for You.

Marc

———————————————————————–

Have you ever wanted to make a difference? Have you heard of the concept of Pay it Forward?

There are a group of people with just such a mission and you can join them.

http:/www.payitforward.name

For more great content, remember to subscribe to my RSS feed. Subscribe

We are in a recession! There, somebody said it.

Everyone who wants the world to continue to move forward without a glitch has been denying this for months but anyone who has shopped for groceries or filled up their car with gas lately knows that things are costing more. That in itself is not enough to signal a recession but for most of us there have not been any proportionate income increases to go along with these increased cost and for us this spells trouble.

Will things get worse before they get better? No one knows for sure, but when I read things like the article I found in Barron’s last week I tend to think that they just might get worse before they get better. The title is enough to shake you in your boots, “Yes, That’s $2 Trillion of Debt Related Losses”. It is an interview with Nouriel Roubini, an economist who has been predicting for two years most of the problems we are now experiencing. Here is some of what he said in the interview.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, you have a pretty good track record. How much more misery lies ahead?

“We are in the second inning of a severe, protracted recession, which started in the first quarter of this year and is going to last at least 18 months, through the middle of next year. A systemic banking crisis will go on for awhile, with hundreds of banks going belly up.”

So far, we have seen no recession in the technical sense: two consecutive quarters of negative growth in real GDP. Why not?

“Maybe the recession started in January; if you look at the data on gross domestic product on a monthly basis between February and April, GDP was falling. Saying this is not a recession is just a joke.”

How long will it take for the collapse in the banking sector to play out?

“It is happening in real time. Many smaller banks are going bust already. More than 200 subprime-mortgage lenders have gone bust in the past year alone. And many community banks will go bankrupt. Community banks usually finance everything: the homes, the stores, the downtown, the commercial real estate, the shopping center. If you are in a town or a municipality where there is a housing bust, the bank is gone. Of three dozen or so medium-sized regional banks, a good third are in distress. That includes the Wachovias and Washington Mutuals of the world. Half of this group might go bankrupt. Even some of the majors could end up technically insolvent, though they might be deemed too big to fail.”

My purpose is not to make you feel worse than you already do but to get you thinking about what you can do to stay ahead of all this. First, you should have some money in the bank (one that won’t fail, I hope). Having cash during a downturn can help you weather your own personal downturn and take advantage of opportunities that are sure to be there at the bottom.

Next, you should find new ways to conserve the resources you have. I have a garden and I freeze, can and dehydrate tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash and cucumbers to see me through the winter. You can find ways to drive less or drive using less gas. Start buying store brands instead of name brand products (most of the store brands are made by the national brands anyway).

Lastly, you can find new sources of income. How much stuff do you have in that storage room or in the attic? Have a garage sale of put it on Craig’s List or EBay. Start a side business doing something you already know and like to do. Can you play an instrument? Give lessons. Are you a computer geek? Sell your skills to help people who need it. Are you a great cook? Find someone who wants to eat what you make. There are lots of ways to stay ahead if you just put your mind to it.

A recession doesn’t have to hurt a lot if you just stay ahead of it by being prepared and by taking action. Now is not the time to pull the covers over your head. Get up and start moving and you will be one of the survivors.

Let me know if I can help you in any way.

Marc

Are you interested in helping people succeed? Do you understand the concept of Pay it Forward?

There is a group of people who want to help you pay it forward to just 4 people and help end poverty
in this country and around the world.

Check out this mission: http://payitforward.name

For more great content, remember to subscribe to my RSS feed. Subscribe

Thanks for checking this out. my intention here is to provide you with both information you can use and ideas and thoughts that will get you thinking about what is important in your life.

Feel free to comment on anything you find as I am interested in how things land and what is working both for you and for me.

I am always on the lookout for what’s new and useful so if you have something you think I should share, feel free to let me in on it.

Marc

For more great content, remember to subscribe to my RSS feed. Subscribe